Rob Oller commentary: Bengals' win features more substance than drama

Monday

Dec 20, 2010 at 12:01 AMDec 20, 2010 at 11:29 AM

CINCINNATI - In boob tube programming parlance, this was Gunsmoke football, the kind of no-nonsense retro show that led the Cincinnati Bengals to the playoffs last season. Missing was the ridiculous reality TV drama that has come to define the marketing franchise of Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco.

Those two, who at times seem more interested in their The T.Ocho Show than in their day jobs, were nonfactors yesterday as Cincinnati ran the down Cleveland's throat in a 19-17 win that snapped a 10-game losing streak.

Owens suffered a knee injury before halftime and did not return. Ochocinco tweaked his tender ankle and was limited to two catches. In their absence, the Bengals (3-11) gave the ball to Cedric Benson a season-high 31 times, and he rewarded them by rushing for 150 yards and a touchdown. Cincinnati's 45 rushing attempts trumped the season high by eight and were nearly 16 more than average.

The Browns (5-9), meanwhile, struggled on both sides of the ball, but particularly against the run. They played with the urgency of a postcard snowfall. Losing to the Bengals is no way to quiet speculation that coach Eric Mangini will lose his job if Cleveland does not close the season with a win or two, which now seems unlikely with Baltimore and Pittsburgh still up.

The Browns rushed for just 59 yards, all by Peyton Hillis, and while they were a recovered onside kick away from possibly pulling out the 75th meeting between the two teams, in the end it goes down as the second straight loss to a bad team, following last week's 13-6 sleepwalk against Buffalo.

Making matters worse for Mangini was how Cleveland lost this one. The Bengals beat the Browns at their own game by pounding the ball and stopping the run.

That's the basic summation, so basic that Benson finds it hard to believe the Bengals have missed the message. Cincinnati averaged 32 attempts and 127 yards rushing in building a 9-4 record at this point last season. Those numbers have dipped to 24.5 and 84.3, respectively, in part because the offense has more receiving weapons, including rookies Jordan Shipley and Jermaine Gresham. But quarterback Carson Palmer has struggled at times to find those weapons, who also have struggled to run the right routes.

All the while, Benson has done a slow burn.

"There is no doubt I was disappointed," he said of a season well past the brink. "Did we not do it right (last season) and find a formula that would work?"

Benson knows full well the answer to that. He is frustrated. He wants the ball more often than the Bengals have given it to him.

"But if people are unaware of the obvious, I have no control over that," he said.

The obvious - Cincinnati is 41-23 under coach Marvin Lewis when rushing for at least 100 yards - has been obscured this season because of the sideshow that is T.O. and Ochocinco. The receivers do produce. Owens came in ranked fourth in the AFC with 72 catches, Ochocinco was sixth with 65. But they also produce silliness, mixed with selfishness, which is the antithesis of trench football.

Don't think the majority of players don't know it. A football team is like a family, and in many instances the more serious family members grow tired of the siblings who constantly seek attention.

Yesterday, the show-offs were the equivalent of sick in bed, leaving adults to run the show.